Collar protectors for shirts with laydown and/or flat collars



C- A. CALDER Oct. 25, 1966 COLLAR PROTECTORS FOR SHIRTS WITH LAY-DOWN AND/OR PLAT COLLARS Filed June 4, 1965 F l G. 3

INVENTOR. 0455/12 4. CALDER FIG.6

United States Patent Office 3,281,826 Patented Oct. 25, 1956 3,281,026 COLLAR PROTECTORS FOR SHIRTS WITH LAY- DOWN AND/OR FLAT COLLARS Caesar A. Calder, Livingston, N.J., assignor to Time Savers, Inc., Montclair, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 4, 1965, Ser. No. 466,506 4 Claims. (Cl. 223-83) This invention relates to collar protectors for shirts with lay-down collars as well as those with flat collars.

All shirts with lay-down collars, whether manufactured for market or professionally laundered, require protection to prevent fold-over at the front of the collar, both for comfort to the wearer as well as eye appeal. This contrasts with shirts with stand-up collars which require support against vertical compressional forces.

An object of this invention is to improve upon the laydown collar protectors disclosed in my Patent No. 2,883,094, dated April 21, 1959. In said patent, the collar protectors comprise a flat sheet of cardboard to which a flexible metal holddown strip is attached. The accomplishment of this invention is to provide at the lowest possible cost a highly improved collar protector made of a single sheet of cardboard, tough paper or plastic material, which shall provide means to protect the collar against fold-over of inside of collar band at its frontal portions.

Another object of this invention is to provide a laydown collar protector made of a single piece of sheet material and comprising a V-shaped portion having inclined arms to be received between the collar portions and the neckband, with an integral tab at the apex of the V, having outwardly inclined edges which may engage the top edges of the collar to hold the collar protector in place, and said tab being foldable, when necessary, rearwardly and downwardly against the inside of the front of the neckband (or collar band) to hold the collar protector in place against rough handling in shipment.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a collar protector of the character described, made of a single sheet of cardboard and provided with a V-shaped portion having inclined arms and formed with a pair of openings or holes, with slits along the upper edges of said arms extending to the openings or holes to form a tab, and points formed by the design of said holes, which may engage inner as well as outer surfaces of the fold of the collar adjacent the front of the collar, to compel the front collar and neckband portions to lie flat and maintain their proper fold line, and to bring the collar fronts together. The thickened or stitched edge portions of the collar slip into these openings or holes, allowing the collar fronts to come as close together as possible.

Another object of this invention is to provide a strong, durable and extremely inexpensive collar protector of the character described, which will be easy to manufacture from a strip of cardboard of uniform width, without waste except for the portions punched from the spaced openings or holes, which collar protectors shall be easy to insert and both practical and eflicient to a high degree.

Other objects of the present invention will in part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope of invention will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a shirt with a flat, or semilay-down collar, in which the V at the front of the shirt is about 110, and is provided with a collar protector em bodying the invention and showing the tab folded rearwardly and downwardly against the inside of the front of the neckband of the shirt;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a strip of cardboard die-cut to form a series of collar protectors with edges of its arms at approximately an angle of FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but showing the tab extending substantially in the plane of the collar protector, having been forced past the thick portion of the upper edge of a collar without folding back the tab;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but showing a collar protector applied to a shirt with a lay-down or semi-laydown collar in which the angle of the collar at the front of the shirt is about 72; and

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 3, but showing a collar protector for shirt collars as shown in FIG. 5, with edges on its arms at an angle of approximately 72.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, 10 designates a shirt with a flat, lay-down collar, provided with a collar protector 11 embodying the invention. 'Ilhe shirt 10 may be of standard construction having the usual overlapping shirt front portions 12, and provided with a collar 13. The collar 13 consists of .an inner neckband portion 14, and sewn or attached thereto or extending therefrom, an outer downwardly extending collar portion 15. The collar band 14 is stitched to the body of the shirt on line of stitching 9. One end of the collar band has a button hole 9a through which a button 911 at the other end of the collar band is passed. Between the neck band 14 and the collar portion 15 is a collar fold 16. The shirt collar is so shaped that the apex of the angle at the front of the shirt makes an angle of about 110 (FIGS. 1 and 4). The lower edges 17 of the collar portion 15, as well as the front edges 18, are usually thickened by stitching or other means.

The collar protector 11 comprises a V-shaped portion 20 having arms 21 inclined from a central portion 22. The arms 21 have upper edges 23 forming an angle of about 110, as shovm in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4.

The collar protector 11 is made from a single sheet of cardboard, tough paper or inexpensive plastic material. Adjacent the apex of the edges 23, at the central apex portion of the protector 11, are a pair of spaced symmetrically disposed, preferably round or circular, openings or holes 24. Between the holes 24 is a narrow neck 37. The collar protector is formed with slits 25 which are longitudinal extensions of the upper edges 23, and these slits extend to the openings 24 and are preferably substantially radial with the centers thereof, thereby forming with said openings, two pairs of extending points 26, 36. Points 26 point upwardly and inwardly, whereas points 36 point downwardly and outwardly. Between the slits 25 there is formed a dovetail shaped tab 27, which has upwardly and outwardly inclined edges 31 and which may have an upper curved or crescent-shaped edge 28 meeting slit 25 at outer points 36a. Each edge 31 thus has points 36, 36a at the ends thereof.

The arms 21 have lower edges 29 parallel to the edges 23. The inner ends of the edges 29 extend to an inwardly curved edge 30 similar to the outwardly curved edges 28 and located at the lower side of the protector. The collar protectors have parallel outer side edges 33. The edges 23 are connected to edges 33 by outwardly curved edges 34. The edges 29 connect to edges 33 by means of inwardly curved edges 35 similar to edges 34.

Thus the collar protectors may be die-cut from an elongated strip of cardboard of uniform width, as illustrated in FIG. 3 of the drawing, and without waste. The portions of the cardboard which form the openings or holes 24 must be stripped, however. The

curved extreme edges 34 facilitate insertion of the collar protector beneath the collar portion 15. The die cuts which produce edges 34, 23 and 28 of one support 11, also produce edges 35, 29 and 30, respectively, of the next adjacent support.

It will be noted that the collar protector 11 is inserted underneath the collar of the shirt 10 by slightly bowing the same at its center before slipping the arms 21 beneath the collar portion 15, preventing the tab 27 from becoming torn or distorted and permitting the thickened edges .18 to slip into holes 24. The points 26 engage beneath the collar portion 15 at its fold 16 to engage the thickened front portions 18. When the edges 25 of tab 27 are forced with slight pressure past the thickness of the folds at the V of the collar, it is difficult to shake the protector loose, because the points 36 bite into the collar, even if the support 11 were pulled down by grabbing it at portion 22. By folding tab 27 rearwardly and downwardly against the inside of the front of the neckband portion 14, the collar protector edges 23 are forced against the underside of collar fold 16, thus protecting the neckband 14 against fold-over at the front of the collar. In such position, the edges 31 of the tab, at its end points 36, 36a, bite into the inner surface of the neckband portion 14, as shown in FIG. 5. By foldover is meant that the collar folds about a portion of the front of the collar thereby exposing some of the inner collar band, instead of folding along the fold 16 at the front of the collar. This fold-over of inner band 16, approximately 1" on either side of the front of the collar, occurs in approximately 65% of all shirts laundered due to improper drying on laundry collar presses, distorting the appearance and comfort of the collar for the wearer. The material of which the blank 1s made is hence such that the folded back tab stays in folded back position (FIG. 2).

In many cases the tab 27 shown in FIG. 4, may be left substantially in the plane of the portion 21, 22 of the collar protector, so that the thick edge portions 18 at the fold 16 at the front of the collar can slip into holes 24, and with slight pressure, the slits of tab 27 pass the inclined side edges of fold 16 at its V point so that points 36 hold the collar protector in place without fold-over of inner neckband 14 at the front of the collar. The points 26 at the front of the collar will nevertheless also engage beneath the fold 16 at the front of the collar, to hold the front portions of the collar close together.

In FIGS. 1 and 4, there is illustrated a portion 10a of shirt 10 with a so-called flat, or semi-lay-down collar, so formed that the angle at the front of the collar is about 110. The shirt collar may also be formed to have an angle of about 72 at the front of the shirt, as illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIGS. and 6, there is shown a lay-down collar protector 11a to accommodate such shirt folded as in FIG. 5.

The collar protector 11a is constructed similarly to the collar support 11, except that the angle between the arms is about 72 instead of being about 110. Thus, the collar protector 11a is also made of a single piece of flat paper, of tough cardboard, or inexpensive plastic or like material, and the same has a central portion 22a and inclined arms 21a, and upper inclined edges 23a from which extend slits 25a toward the centers of openings 24a, thereby forming points 26a, 36a corresponding to points 26, 36, respectively. The angle between the edges 23a is about 72. Here likewise, there is formed a dovetail tab 27a having a crescent-shaped upper edge 28a. The arms 21a of collar protector 11a have lower inclined edges 29a, and a lower edge 30a corresponding side edges 33a.

These collar protectors have parallel outer Here likewise, the tab 27a may either remain in the plane of the rest of the collar protector, or may be folded back as shown in FIG. 5 to engage the edges 23a firmly in place, snugly against and underneath fold 16a of the collar 13 of shirt 10a.

The collar protector 11a is the same Width between edges 33a as the collar protector 11, but is longer, thus making it possible for arms 21a to go further up under the collar portion 15. Here likewise, the collar protector 11a may be die-cut from a single sheet or strip of cardboard or uniform width.

It will thus be seen that there is provided a collar protector in which the several objects of the invention are achieved, and which is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use of various types of lay-down and semi-lay-down collars.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment set forth above, it is to be understood that the matter set forth above or shown in the accompanying drawing, is merely illustrative and is not to be interpreted in a limiting sense, the scope of the invention being delineated in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A collar protector made of a single sheet and comto edge 28a.

prising a central apex portion and a pair of upwardly and outwardly inclined arms forming a V, said arms having upwardly and outwardly inclined upper edges, said sheet being formed with a pair of spaced circular openings symmetrically disposed with respect to the mid-portion of said sheet, said sheet being formed with straight slits extending from saidupper edges of said arms to said openings, and said sheet being formed between said slits with a dovetail shaped tab connected to the middle of said sheet by a neck disposed between said openings, said tab being foldable back about said neck to be in back of said central portion, said sheet being made of such material that when said tab is folded back, it will remain in folded back condition, said protector being formed with upwardly and inwardly extending points where the upper edges of the arms meet said openings, and said tab being formed .with downwardly and outwardly extending points where the edges of the tab formed by said slits meet said openings, and said arms having lower edges parallel to said upper edges. A

2. The combination of claim 1, said slits extending radially toward the centers of said openings.

3. The combination of claim 2, said slits being in straight alignment with the upper edges of said arms.

4. The combination of claim 3, said tab having an upper crescent shaped edge extendingto the outer ends of said slits and forming outer end points at said slits, and said protector having a lower edge between the lower edges of said arms corresponding to the shape of the upper edge of said tab.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,904,092 4/ 1933 Sidebottom 223-98 2,133,068 10/1938 Wiegman 22383 'X 2,373,855 4/1945 Shaw 22383 2,822,114 2/1958 Noojin et al. 22383 2,846,127 8/1958 Tomarin 223-83 2,883,094 4/1959 Calder 223 83 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A COLLAR PROTECTOR MADE OF A SINGLE SHEET AND COMPRISING A CENTRAL APEX PORTION AND A PAIR OF UPWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY INCLINED ARMS FORMING A V, SAID ARMS HAVING UPWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY INCLINED UPPER EDGES SAID SHEET BEING FORMED WITH A PAIR OF SPACED CIRCULAR OPENINGS SYMMETRICALLY DISPOSED WITH RESPECT TO THE MID-PORTION OF SAID SHEET, SAID SHEET BEING FORMED WITH STRAIGHT SLITS EXTENDING FROM SAID UPPER EDGES OF SAID ARMS TO SAID OPENINGS, AND SAID SHEET BEING FORMED BETWEEN SID SLITS WITH A DOVETAIL SHAPED TAB CONNECTED TO THE MIDDLE OF SAID SHEET BY A NECK DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID OPENINGS, SAID TAB BEING FOLDABLE BACK ABOUT SAID NECK TO BE IN BACK OF SAID CENTRAL PORTION, SAID SHEET BEING MADE OF SUCH MATERIAL THAT WHEN SAID TAB IS FOLDED BACK, IT WILL REMAIN IN FOLDED BACK CONDITION, SAID PROTECTOR BEING FORMED WITH UPWARDLY AND INWARDLY EXTENDING POINTS WHERE THE UPPER EDGES OF THE ARMS MEET SAID OPENINGS, AND SAID TAB BEING FORMED WITH DOWNWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY EXTENDING POINTS WHERE THE EDGES OF THE TAB FORMED BY SAID SLITS MEET SAID OPENINGS, AND SAID ARMS HAVING LOWER EDGES PARALLEL TO SAID UPPER EDGES. 